Microelectronic manufacturing techniques have led to the miniaturization of numerous devices. Mobile phones, personal digital assistant devices, and digital cameras are very common examples of the miniaturization trend.
One device that has not seen the advantage of microelectronic manufacturing techniques is the printer. Commercially available printers are large compared to many of the devices they could support. For instance, it is impractical to carry a color printer for the purpose of instantly printing photographs taken with known compact digital cameras.
A compact printhead has been described in co-pending United States Patent Applications filed simultaneously to the present application and hereby incorporated by cross reference:
USSNTitle09/575,152Fluidic seal for an ink jet nozzle assembly09/575,141Ink jet printhead having a moving nozzle with anexternally arranged actuator09/575,125Method of manufacture of an ink jet printhead havinga moving nozzle with an externally arranged actuator09/575,176Ink jet printhead nozzle array09/575,147Nozzle guard for an ink jet printhead
It is known in some compact devices such as cameras to provide on-board processing to apply effects such as labels, for example the time and date. It is even known to have facility to produce custom labels, although these are normally only simple text. The problem with these known devices is that they are very limited in the range of effects provided. Furthermore, they are built in to the device and are therefore fixed. A more versatile approach to memory devices is desirable.